Hurt
by MellyHorror-Salvatore-Northman
Summary: Jade's finds Tori broken on her door step and takes her in. Rated T. One-Shot. Tumblr Request.


**Jade's finds Tori broken on her door step and takes her in. Rated T. One-Shot. Tumblr Request. **

"I don't but boy if I did, I'd buy a big house where we both could li-." A loud knocking at my door had my fingers fumbling across the piano keys. I cursed and canceled my recording, planning to restart once I scared off who ever was at the door.

I grabbed a drink before leisurely making my way over to the door, stretching and popping my back after being hunched over the piano practicing every song I could think of. I flipped the lock on the door, counted to two and yanked the large door open, narrowing my eyes on instinct, "Vega?" I question, she was holding her hand over her face, glancing behind her frantically, "what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry I know you don't -but I had, please can I come in?" she asks, I nod and step back, she comes inside and I close the door behind her, "I'm sorry for just showing up out of nowhere but I couldn't think over anywhere else to go." She sinks down on my couch.

As I close the door behind me I stare at her. Her clothes are rumpled, her hair has twigs in it and she's still cupping her cheek with one hand, the other arm wrapped around her waist protectively, "Tori, what happened?" I slowly walk up and sit down beside her, resting my arm gently on her shoulder. She flinches away from me.

"I just…he was so _angry._" Her eyes are watering and she bites down on her lip hard, as if trying to maintain the last of her strength and then she just lets out the loudest most painful sob I've ever heard and curls into herself, "I was at a party and he just wouldn't take no for an answer."

_I'm going to kill that fucker, _I think, kneeling in front of her so she's looking down at my face, "did you…?"

"I broke his nose and ran away as fast as I could. The party was right down the street…" she pulls her hand away from her face, she had a bruise blooming around a rather nasty cut, tears creating red tracks down her neck, "I feel so disgusting."

"I'll get a bath started for you so you can clean off. Come on." We head up the stairs and she sits on the closed toilet. I clean up the cut on her cheek silently, "we only have these Spider-Man Band-Aids, I'm sorry." I mumble, gently putting three over the cut on her cheek.

I toss the wrappers in the garbage, "do you want regular bath or bubbles? I don't know if you like that kind of shit or not…"

"Bubbles would be nice…" her voice is almost nothing, I can't bring myself to turn around and see her, so I grab the bubble bath and dump it generously into the tub, stirring it up to kill time. I capped the bubble bath and shut off the water.

"I'll be back to check on you in ten minutes…" I heave a sigh as I stand up straight.

"Can you come back after I get into the tub? I don't want to be alone." She mumbles.

"I'll go get towels and something for you to wear and come right back." I tell her, pulling open the door, I glance back at her. She's curled up completely curled up on the toilet with her knees at her chest, "you're safe here, you know that, right?"

She nods at me and I step out the door, pulling it shut behind me silently. I go down the hall into my bedroom; I grab some of my older clothes that will hopefully fit her and grab some spare towels from the hall. I pause outside the door. I can hear the water moving around, I knock slowly, "come in." I push the door open and set what I have in my arms on the counter, picking up her clothes and tossing them into my hamper before sitting down on the purple shag floor carpet and looking up at her.

I open my mouth to say something and then close it again, what can I really say to her? I don't know what I can do. She just looks so hollow, staring at the water nearly unblinking, "Thanks for this, Jade. I owe you."

"You don't have to thank me, Tori." I tell her, picking at the frayed knee of my jeans. She looks over at me, "we're friends, this is what friends do. They help each other out, without any need for repayment. You don't owe me anything."

"Were you singing Elton John when I knocked?" she asked after a long silence.

"Yes. Your Song." I reply, "I was sending an audition for something at school."

"Sing it for me?" she asks, something in the way her amber eyes are latched onto mine makes it impossible for me to say no. I sigh and close my eyes, making my knees my piano I start running through the song, singing softly. When I open my eyes at the end Tori is just looking at me with a sad smile on her face, "why don't you want to go into singing?"

"I don't know. I've just never wanted to be a singer, I like singing, and it makes me happy. I'd be terrified if I made it big and started thinking of it as work. I never want to ruin singing, it's just something peaceful and relaxing."

"I suppose that makes sense. I feel better now, so I'm going to get out…" she says. I stand up and point to the pile of clothes and then step toward the door pausing briefly before opening the door and stepping out, closing it behind me again.

My heart hurts, physically my chest is aching. Tori just looked so hurt and broken and terrified when she came in and then just really sad, and then she gave me that smile. I swipe at my cheek, brushing away the few stray tears that had rolled from my eyes. When Tori came out I led her down to my bedroom where she curled up on my bed while I started a random movie that happened to be in my player, it was a copy of Brave my brother had obviously been watching.

I sunk down on the bed next to her and stretched out, staring at the screen while trying to watch her out of the corner of my eye. She was holding herself together in a small little ball, biting down on her bare knee, "Vega, come here." I whisper, wrapping my arms around her back and pulling her toward me. She instantly uncoils and throws herself against me, sobbing loudly, shaking the whole bed.

I rub her back softly and hold her against me, not saying a word as she cries and screams and when she finally stops and lays against me still, taking deep calming breaths I don't move and neither does she, I continue to rub her back and she cries silently, face buried against my neck in my hair, sticking it to my neck in an uncomfortable way.

"Jade. I feel worthless." She whispers.

I sit up a bit, grabbing her chin softly with my fingers so I can look into her red eyes, "You, Tori Vega, are not worthless. You're special and wonderful, you make the world bright and full of sunshine, and without you the world would be a much dimmer place. _You are not worthless_."

She smiles sort of, it's wavering, like she's trying to smile and burst into tears at the same time and she just buries her face in my neck again and cries some more before I can tell she's drifted off to sleep. I reach over to my remote and shut off the TV, settling beside her with my eyes closed, holding Vega as close to me as possible.


End file.
